Mission Stardust (1967) - a couple of astronauts go to the moon and discover an alien ship there - commanded by the totally hot Swedish actress Essy Persson. The ship's scientist has Leukemia so our astronauts try to get him to a guy in East Africa who knows the cure. Of course they're opposed by the local militia and a group of bad guys who want to get the alien technology to rule the world. This was silly fun with rather comical special effects. And did I mention Essy looks hot? 3.5/5.

THE TRIAL (1962): Orson Welles' adaptation of Franz Kafka's absurdist story wherein Joseph K wakes up one day and finds he's being arrested, but no one will tell him what the charge is. Deeply layered, THE TRIAL is simultaneously an absurdist parody of legal bureaucracy, a prophetic warning of rising totalitarianism, and an existential allegory about a word whose Creator has condemned everyone to death. Welles proves the right man for the job, turning Kafka's labyrinths into a web of shadows and light. 4.5/5.

The Children-Found this one on Troma's youtube channel and thought free seemed like an acceptable price for such a movie. After a schoolbus passes through a cloud of smoke all the children within are transformed into murderous atomic zombies. Their method of killing? Hugs! Yes don't hug these kids or you're face will melt off! Thankfully one police officer discovers that while shooting them does nothing, cutting off the children's hands stops them. Would make a good/horrible double bill with another troma distributed title "Beware Children at Play", which also features evil kids being murdered. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGEjRKlJJhI

The Town-I really enjoyed Ben Affleck's other directed films "Argo" and "Gone Baby Gone" so I decided to give this one a go. On one hand there's nothing here we haven't seen before (bank robberies, criminal wanting to change his ways, etc...) but it's all done so well that it all feels new. I watched the extended cut which is over two and a half hours and thought for such a long film that the pacing was great. With the quality of his first three films being so high I greatly anticipate his upcoming movie "Live By Night" a prohibition era crime saga that is in pre production.

Also known as "Mindwarp," this is one of two sci-fi/horror pix released by Roger Corman's New World Pictures in the early 80s to cash in on the success of "Alien" (the other was "Forbidden World" aka "Mutant.") In this one, a crew of astronauts on a rescue mission to a hostile planet become victims of their own fears and get picked off one by one.

More elaborate than your average Corman production, this one suffers from a muddled story but features some cool set design, some nasty ass gore, and a cast that includes a young Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund, Erin "Joanie Cunningham" Moran, and Ray "My Favorite Martian" Walston. Oh, and there's a scene where a chick gets raped to death by a giant slimy space slug, which is worth the price of admission all by itself.....

AKA "Contamination," this Earth-bound Italian-made "Alien" variant from Luigi "Starcrash" Cozzi starts out strong but eventually peters out into utter WTF territory. When a ship drifts into New York harbor with all the crew dead and a cargo hold full of seemingly extraterrestrial eggs, a government scientist, an NYPD cop and a former astronaut travel to South America (?) to unravel the mystery and save the Earth from being overrun by alien goons. Some decent gore but not much else. Skip it.

Silent Scream (2005) - slasher about some college kids who go to a cabin out in the woods. It's not long before a mysterious guy in a parka starts killing them. He actually kills off most of the cast almost immediately, leaving only a few rather unlikable people for us to watch for the remainder of the runtime. Then there's this stupid twist at the end that makes the movie last a good quarter of an hour longer than it should - I just groaned. This extra stuff was totally pointless as well. There were a couple of amusing kills, that's about it. 2/5.

Shy Sarah (Kay Lenz) and her beautiful stepsister Patty (Morgan Brittany) start College and "must" apply for a sorority. Elite sorority "Head-Sister" Jennifer (Morgan Fairchild) favors Patty, and mousy Sarah ends up with a rivaling outcast sort of sorority in a creepy old house. Jennifer turns out to be a real b***h giving Sarah a hard time while Sarah falls in love with a young teacher. After a intense confrontation with Jennifer the outcast sorority regains lost self esteem, but Jennifer isn't done with Sarah yet. For revenge she has a nasty prank hidden up her sleeve ...

Yep, it's Carrie all over again but I'll be damned if The Initiation of Sarah wasn't entertaining enough. 4/5

Crawlspace (1986) (Blu-ray)

Mister Gunter (Klaus Kinski) rents out apartments to needy sexy females and gets his freak on watching them through a crawlspace. When a new tenant moves in things start to get complicated for Herr Gunter - she's suspicious of weird activities going on in the house plus a stranger seeking the murderer of his father causes trouble. Nothing Mister Gunter can't handle - the house is equipped with deadly booby traps ...

Naziploitation? a little bit. Sadistic horror? sure. Slasher? sort of. It's all about Klaus Kinski anyway. He makes this average terror flick work with intense overacting and thick accent. 4/5

Demons 2 (1986) (Blu-ray)

Evil is spreading in "The Tower" - a high rise building located somewhere in Germany (I'm assuming Berlin). It's all Sally's fault: the b***hy teen is unhappy with her looks and spoils her own birthday party. While watching an obscure flick about demons on TV Sally is infected and turns into a slimy thing from hell. Soon enough she infects her party guests and together they go on a roaring rampage of destruction ...

House at the End of the Street (2012) - a girl and her mom move into a house out in the country. Next door is another house where a family of four used to live - until the psycho daughter killed her parents. Now the son lives there alone. So of course the girl is attracted to this guy, and for a solid hour we suffer through a really bad teen romance, mommy issues, and cliched school jerk issues. It's as if the writer of this thing has no contact with other human beings and doesn't know how they act or even what they do. This doesn't build suspense or develop the characters - it's 100% pure filler. Finally we get a fairly interesting plot twist and it turns into a horror movie for the last half hour. That part was actually pretty good. I'll give some credit to Jennifer Lawrence, the lead actress, for managing to build a marginally likable character when no one else involved in the production seemed to have any clue what they were doing. 3/5.

Last night I suffered through and incredibly bad chunk of cheese called ZOMBIE GENOCIDE. I literally stared at the TV for 25 minutes waiting for a plot to emerge, then fast-forwarded to the actual zombies - and after a few minutes, fast-forwarded some more. Boring characters, nonexistent plot, and cheap effects. Avoid this one at all costs.

Coraline (2009): In this animated feature based on a story by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick, a young girl who feels out of touch with her parents finds herself a wondrous dream world to escape into where her parents seem to be everything she ever hoped they could be and so is everything else...only all isn't as perfect and pristine and lemony sweet as it seems on the surface.

I enjoyed this but it doesn't always work as well as one would like. It does teach the lesson of valuing what you have and not always judging things by a shiny outer exterior. Nevertheless, in the end, it doesn't really seem like a whole lot has changed in the life of Coraline although she no doubt appreciated more the life she has. Definitely some genuinely creepy and unsettling moments in this one and it's pretty dark in some places. While more of an animated feature aimed at adults, at times it nevertheless feels more aimed at youth who seem perhaps a tad too young for the subject matter. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

The Gumball Rally (1976): an illegal car race from New York to California, called the Gumball Rally, is held. One determined cop sets out to put a stop to it but the racers always seem just one step ahead.

This movie is a lot of fun. It's pretty much Cannonball Run before they made Cannonball Run and it's arguably better and funnier than that film. The car race element of it proves exciting and there's lot of humor and action in this one too. Funniest bits involve the antics of motorcycle racer Lapchick the Mad Hungarian played by Harvey Jason and there's also a funny segment featuring a racer and his girlfriend warding off the advances of a biker gang. Only negative here is it is a bit slow getting started but once it does, it's really involving. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Legally Blonde (2001): After being dumped by her boyfriend for essentially being too much the "dumb blonde", a blonde named Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) who's actually very intelligent sets out to defy expectations and sets out to go to Harvard and become a lawyer in hopes of winning back her ex (Matthew Davis) who's now attending Harvard.

While this one seems rather farfetched on a lot of levels, it does promote a good message of not judging someone else's ability just based on background and looks. It also promotes the idea that anyone can succeed. This has some funny moments here and there and is more tolerable than most flicks of its type largely due to the lead performance of Witherspoon. I doubt any other actress could have pulled off this role as well. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Marley and Me (2008): The story of the life of a dog named Marley, essentially nicknamed "the World's Worst Dog" by his owners, the Grogans, and how he came to affect his adopted family.

This family movie is really sweet and moving for the most part with good lead performances by Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston but the real star here is the Golden Lab who plays Marley. It really is mostly a story focused around the dog and the part he plays in the lives of his family although we also see the trials and tribulations of the ever-expanding Grogan clan along the way. An enjoyable movie, but also quite sad (possibly could bring on the tears for some) before the end. Not fairly advertised as a family comedy, it's truly more in the realm of family drama. **** out of ***** stars.

Robots (2005): a young robot named Rodney (voiced by Ewan McGregor) sets out to find himself in the big city and hopes to work for his childhood idol the idealistic Bigweld (voiced by Mel Brooks) but finds he has to battle corporate corruption along the way given Bigweld's Robot City and his company has been taken over by hotshot Phineas T. Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) who's only concerned with profits and helping his evil and demented mother Madame Gasket get all the spare parts she needs for her Chop Shop. Both are bent on wiping on so-called outmodes, which makes up the majority of the population of Robot City but Rodney after trying to fix as many as he can, sets out to find Bigweld in hopes of changing Robot City back in the more ideal, accepting of all robots, place it once was.

This movie was a lot of fun. It really promotes the idea that no matter who or what you are, with the right dream and the right supports, you can succeed. Not sure that's always true nowadays but it is a nice ideal. While in many ways, the movie offers few real surprises, it nevertheless proves a great way to escape from any troubles for a little while. ***1/2 out of ***** stars.

Remake of the semi-classic '80s "Kill A Commie For Mommy" action flick replaces Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Peck, and the Russians with North Koreans, as World War III drops into the Pacific Northwest and the local high schoolers band together to form a resistance group. From then on it's one running gun battle after another, with lotsa sh*t blowin' up, so I certainly wasn't bored.

This movie was totally unnecessary, but I still found it entertaining in a sadistic sort of way.